Netflix's 'Death by Lightning' Accused of Bending Facts for Diversity Quota

Netflix's new period drama 'Death by Lightning', which premiered on November 10, 2025, is earning rave reviews from critics. However, the show has also sparked outrage among viewers who claim the series rewrites history to fit a 'woke' agenda.

The four-part series, which follows the events leading up to the 1881 assassination of President James Garfield, begins with an establishing shot that immediately caught the attention of eagle-eyed viewers. The scene depicts an Asian woman, two Black men, a Black woman, and an amputee strolling the streets of Gilded Age-era Chicago.

According to an analysis by YouTuber Craig Richard Skistimas, this diverse cast of characters would have been statistically impossible in 1880s Chicago. Skistimas crunched the numbers, revealing that the odds of such a group randomly walking together in that time period were about 1 in 2.4 million.

The influencer went on to point out another historical inaccuracy, noting that the Chinese woman in the scene was dressed as an 'upper-class socialite' - something he says would have been 'impossible' given the limited number of Chinese residents in the city at the time.

Despite the show's claim to be a 'true story', Skistimas accused Netflix of 'rewriting history' and engaging in 'lazy tokenism' to check diversity boxes. He conceded that the rest of the series appears to stick closely to historical accuracy, with all the delegates and politicians depicted as white, as they were in 1880.

The controversy has sparked a heated debate online, with many viewers expressing their disappointment in Netflix's apparent disregard for historical facts. As the four-episode series continues to stream, the debate over its 'woke' rewrite of history is likely to rage on.